In May 2024, State of Digital Publishing (SODP) hosted Monetization Week – an online event for digital publishing and news media professionals.
This article is based on the summary of key learnings of a presentation by Radu Cotarcea, Managing Editor of CEE Legal Matters.
CEE Legal Matters (CEELM) is a print/online B2B publication that caters to the legal industry in Central and Eastern Europe. They publish news, analysis, and opinions that are of interest to lawyers. They also host offline events including conferences and round tables. Radu Cotarcea has been working in this industry for 10+ years.
Working as a publisher in the legal industry is particularly challenging in terms of monetization for CEELM due to the following:
- Their market is spread across 24 different legal jurisdictions
- The industry is very conservative and has limited marketing expertise
- Numerous regulations prevent lawyers from effectively advertising their services
Despite being an authority publisher with excellent online engagement and traction, monetization remains a challenge. This is why the publication started focusing on offline corporate events for the legal industry as an alternative route to monetization.
The Role of Subscriber Segmentation
Segmentation is critical for success in B2B niches like corporate legal services.
The target here is to identify the sellers and buyers. If you can fill the room with enough buyers, the sellers will follow, making your event a success.
In CEELM’s case, they identified the two main categories of subscriber base:
- In-house readers– subscribers who are lawyers working in large organizations and Fortune-500 companies (the “buy side”.
- Law firm readers – subscribers who work in dedicated law firms and other legal service providers (the “sell side”).
The segmentation allowed CEELM to effectively control the composition of attendees at their General Counsel Summit, through the following tweaks:
- Buy-side subscribers can attend the events for free
- No registration for the sell side, have to sign up as a partner
Nurturing a Community Through Events
Community building is also crucial for the long-term success of offline events and summits. To sustain audience interest and participation, CEELM adopted the following tactics:
- Hosting events in various cities based on audience surveys
- Publishing audience contributions on the platform
- Hosting award galas and other networking opportunities
Leveraging Event Content to Build Brand and Community
Due to industry regulations, CEELM is limited in its ability to record and publish content from summits. To overcome this, they rely on a team of staff writers to take notes and report on all the content being shared at the events. The reports are used to generate articles on the CEELM platform.
This process also allows CEELM to stay in touch with attendees, ask for quotes to be published in the articles, and so on. These articles can strengthen the brand and provide continued visibility and marketing opportunities for future events.
As Radu explained: “These micro-interactions allow us to constantly stay in touch with our audience and stay on top of their minds. So that when we invite them again 12 months later, they will not just remember us, but will be willing to travel to a whole new country for the sake of it.”
Watch the full session:
Download the ebook of learnings from Monetization Week here.
